♔ Krii7y Oneshots ♔ ON HIATUS

Hidden in Plain Sight

thank you @the_d_ad for this idea

The Keyes Family Estate was frantic this evening. The house was bustling as Mr. and Mrs. Keyes planned this ridiculous masquerade ball. You see, the Keyes family was a very wealthy and high class family with an extremely high reputation. Recently, that reputation was put into question as news of an affair within the family was released to the public, which also revealed signs of a scandal. Mr. and Mrs. Keyes denied both accusations and have been trying desperately to rebuild the damage. So tonight they had planned to host a masquerade ball and invite a large sum of people, including a handful of lower class representatives. They wanted to push the idea that ‘money does not define class’ despite the fact that they did not believe this themselves. They just wanted to impress the public and gain back their favour.

Their son, John Keyes, was going to cater to the attendees in the first portion of the ball to further push the illusion that they believed they were equal. They figured if they flaunted their son’s gentlemanlike behaviours, the public view would rise. John, on the other hand, thought this was ridiculous. He could never understand their obsession with the public view, or why they couldn’t just do good for the sake of doing good. There was always something to gain with them.

As John sat on the red, velvet couch, his mother barked out orders to their staff. She grew aggravated with how ‘slowly’ they were working, despite the fact that she was giving five to six orders at a time and expecting them to complete each order as she gave them, disregarding the time it would take to complete the other tasks. It was infuriating. John wasn’t even allowed to help them. His father was livid when he saw John assisting their staff, yelling about how John needed to look and behave a certain way, especially since the ball was tonight. Claiming that John had no business involving himself in ‘lowly work,’ as he put it, and forbid John from assisting them. John found this ridiculous for more than one reason. For one, the amount of work being placed on their staff was crazy, and for two, his family will literally be having him do the service work for the first hour of the ball.

He huffed out a sigh as he sunk back into his seat, watching as everyone's frantic movements gave him a headache. His mother stopped in her tracks, her yelling ceased with her movements and her face crinkled into a scowl.

“Sit up straight, young man!” She snapped at his hunched posture. Her face grew red as her anger bubbled inside of her. “I cannot believe you would behave so crudely! I am putting so much time and effort and blah blah blah bla-” John began to tune her out. Looking straight at her as his mind drifted elsewhere. His eyes glossed over as the same fanciful idea popped into his head. About three days ago, when the ball was announced to him, his mind began to think of that ridiculous fairytale thought of finding your ‘one true love’ at a masquerade ball. It was foolish, he knew that much. Despite it, that is where his mind drifted in its attempts of granting him even an ounce of serotonin. 

The young man was ripped from his fantasy by his father’s hand colliding with the back of his head. “Are you even listening?” He barked as John rubbed the afflicted area.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” He rolled his eyes and stood up.

“Now go get dressed. We need you to be ready,” His mother hissed and he walked off. His annoyance level rose even higher than before, not only because he was pulled away from his daydream, but because his head now hurt even more than it had been. He grumbled as he made his way up the stairs and into his room, seeing that one of the staff members had laid out a plaid black and white tuxedo for him to wear. So dull. So boring. He ignored these thoughts and began to dress himself, peeved at the idea of the ball. He didn’t want to go. He didn’t want to deal with it all. 

John looked into his full length mirror, making minute adjustments to his suit. Making sure it fit well and looked nice. He stared at his reflection and grimaced. This hour was going to be hellish. He knew how people viewed his family. The upper class, the ones higher up than them, saw them as pathetic and lowly,  the equal upper class constantly butted heads with them to gain power, the middle class wanted to befriend them for money, and the lower class saw them as greedy and corrupt. He couldn’t argue or discredit them, knowing the state of his family, he just found it irritating that he was treated so poorly on the behalf of his family being shit.